NLDS: Braves/Dodgers

[joncarlos]

Who ya got?

Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Nolasco, Kershaw

-vs-

Medlen, Minor, Teheran, Freddy freaking Garcia, Medlen

AKA, the series which somehow features Jason Heyward and Skip Schumaker playing CF for the NL's 2nd and 3rd best teams.

Well those look like some pretty uneven pitching matchups, don't they? The Dodgers will need them. Puig may be a little nicked up. Ethier is limited to pinch hitting. Kemp is out. When Carl Crawford is your healthiest outfielder, things are not good. But the Dodgers also have Hanley and A Gonz.

The Braves left Dan Uggla off the playoff roster and are rolling with Elliot Johnson at 2B. Sure, why not? Justin Upton is sort of hot again, but BJ is scuffling badly and probably won't get too many starts.

[hombre]

For sake of argument- if Dodgers find themselves down 2-1, I think there's a pretty good chance that Mattingly would use Kershaw on 3 days rest, rather than entrusting his season to Nolasco in Game 4.

That way you have Kershaw at home vs Freddy Garcia, certainly looks like an enormous mismatch on paper. And you'd then roll with Greinke (on regular rest) in a potential Game 5 in Atlanta, vs Medlen.

[Don Quixote]

Not much love for the Braves so far in the poll. Not sure why, as the Dodgers' current batting order doesn't scare anyone. Gonzalez, Puig, Hanley, and a whole lot of meh.

[james33]

For sake of argument- if Dodgers find themselves down 2-1, I think there's a pretty good chance that Mattingly would use Kershaw on 3 days rest, rather than entrusting his season to Nolasco in Game 4.

That way you have Kershaw at home vs Freddy Garcia, certainly looks like an enormous mismatch on paper. And you'd then roll with Greinke (on regular rest) in a potential Game 5 in Atlanta, vs Medlen.

Excellent point and makes it really tough to imagine the Dodgers losing this series.

[james33]

Not much love for the Braves so far in the poll. Not sure why, as the Dodgers' current batting order doesn't scare anyone. Gonzalez, Puig, Hanley, and a whole lot of meh.

For me, at least, it is the short series - teams with two stud starters seem really tough to beat in a 5-game series.

[Don Quixote]

Apparently the cure for the Dodgers' offensive woes is Kris Medlen.

Last night shows how much I know.

[overkill94]

Not sure I see much of an advantage for the Braves with the bat:

Crawford - .736
M. Ellis - .674
Hanley - 1.040
Gonzo - .803
Puig - .925
Uribe - .769
Schumaker - .665
A. Ellis - .682

Heyward - .776
Upton - .818
Freeman - .897
Gattis - .771
McCann - .796
C. Johnson - .816
Simmons - .692
E. Johnson - .676

Overall during the regular season, the Dodgers had the slight advantage in OBP while the Braves had the slightly higher slugging, resulting in almost identical OPSes (.723 to .722). I think that, combined with the pitching match-ups should give the advantage to the Dodgers although Ryu and Nolasco's recent struggles make it a little iffier.

[Don Quixote]

The Dodgers are making sure that what I said about their offense is 100% wrong. Props to them.

The Braves have to give the ball to Freddy Garcia tomorrow to keep their season going. Not looking good for Atlanta--but anything can happen.

[Pogues]

Well...that was fast.

[Judge Jude]

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20131011&content_id=62825588&vkey=news_la&c_id=la&tcid=tw_article_62825588

"Dodgers management rolled the dice with the bullpen on Friday, dropping left-handed relievers Paco Rodriguez and Chris Capuano, while adding right-handed relievers Carlos Marmol and Edinson Volquez to the roster for the National League Championship Series.

The decisions were made because club officials concluded that the two lefties do not match up well with the Cardinals' right-handed batters, and the team believes that technical adjustments since their acquisitions have made Marmol and Volquez into more reliable options."

I looked up "reliable" in the dictionary, and sure enough theirs were the only two photos that came up. This is genius. What could possibly go wrong? The Cardinals' struggles against leftiies this season further underscores the wisdom of this move!

[Don Quixote]

Rodriguez hasn't been all that good the last month-plus, so I can see dropping him, but Capuano pitched well in his long relief outing.

If I were a Dodgers fan, I'd much rather see Capuano in the long relief role than Volquez. And while I can see not having Paco on the roster this series, I can't see having Marmol active as any kind of improvement.